Playing With Fire
by saoirsegilr
Summary: This is an A/U. Callie Torres is a player. And she set her eyes on a new Peads attending. But can you play with a destiny without the consequences? *REPOSTED 3rd chapter*
1. Chapter 1

Beta: Big thanks to **almicah**  
Pairing: Callie/Arizona  
Summary: This is an A/U. Callie Torres is a player. And she set her eyes on a new Peads attending. But can you play with a destiny without the consequences?  
Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own Grey's. This was not written for profit and no copyright infringements are intended.

**Prologue**

Rays of rising sun stirred the beautiful brunette from her alcohol induced sleep. She tried to block the intruding sunlight with her hand. It didn't work, so she groggily opened her eyes, looking around she saw an unfamiliar room. Silently cursing from the huge hangover she tried to turn around, only to find a warm body of another woman, silently sleeping near. She cursed one more time; she didn't even remember her name. She quietly crawled out of the bed and hurriedly put her clothes on. To avoid awkward conversation she tried to slip from the room unnoticed, but the ringing of her phone startled her and woke the sleeping girl. _Crap!_Avoiding questioning gaze she answered a call.

"Torres! What the hell? Bailey paged you half an hour ago! There was a huge road accident." The tone of her friend was worried with a little shade of accusation.

"I'm on my way. Give me 10." _I just need to find out where the hell I am._

She napped the phone shut. And looked at the girl, who watched her conversation with interest. This is the situation that she desperately tried to avoid.

"Well… I need to go… Huge trauma…" She didn't know what to say. Usually at this time she was on her way home. Girl looked at her with hope.

"Will you call me? Maybe a couple of drinks tonight?" Torres plastered a fake interested smile on her face.

"Yeah… Sure… Um, I'll call you…" Not waiting for the answer she fled from the apartment.

Walking down the stairs her thought returned to the previous night. And all the other nights filled with the meaningless sex and alcohol. _Shit. I need to stop doing this. I can't even remember their names._But deep down in her soul she knew that everything will happen again. This was her life now or maybe it was always like that. Or maybe she couldn't remember herself being happy and without this gaping hole in her heart. She didn't know. And she didn't care…

At the crowded cafeteria of the Seattle Grace Hospital another phone conversation was going on. A tall blonde doctor was animatedly speaking to someone on the other line.

"Well, you spoke to the Chief. He's giving you a job. You'll be head of the department. Why are you hesitating?"

"It's just a huge change, Teddy. And I don't know if I can manage. It's…"

"You _need_ a change. Especially after what happened…" The person on the other side interrupted the blonde surgeon before she could finish.

"I'm past _that_. I just don't want to rush in something new."

"Stop. Just stop. You'll get a ticket and fly over here; I'll pick you up from the airport and you'll start a new page of your life. It'll be good, I promise."

"Yeah? Can you even help me find an apartment?" Teddy smiled for the first time during this conversation.

"I'll even let you get drunk the first day you'll be here. Just like in college…"

"Ok…"

"Ok?"

"Yeah… How I can refuse a free drinks even if I need to fly across the whole country for them." They laughed and after a couple of minutes of friendly banter Teddy hung up.

So, her best fried was coming to Seattle. There will be a lot of talk around. After everyone will find out a name of a new Peds attending, they would immediately link her to the huge fire in the Children's Hospital Boston. Where young Peds surgeon saved 14 children and was trapped under the burning remains of the saved her and she had a long road of recovery. But now she was ok. At least physically. So Teddy prayed that no one would mention something to her friend. Because there was another side of this story for Arizona Robbins…

**Chapter 1**

It was relatively quiet today at Seattle Grace, no huge trauma, no big scandals, nothing to gossip about. So nobody paid any attention to Teddy Altman, quietly sitting outside Chief's office, drinking her morning coffee. She was nervously glancing at her watch and then at the office door. _What's taking them so long?_ Just as she thought about it the door opened and the good looking blonde stepped out.

"So? What did he say?" The blonde smiled her signature deep dimpled smile.

"Well, I'm officially Head of the Peads. Starting today!" she bounced a little. "Now I need to get a badge and a new set of scrubs…"

Teddy looked at her friend with a tender smile. She was glad that Arizona was finally getting out of her shell and that bits of her perky personality started showing up.

"So, how about a tour around the hospital?"

"Sounds good…" she paused, remembering something "Oh, and I need to find . Chief said that I can ask her about some of the infants at the ICU."

"Well, it's slow day. So let's try a cafeteria. That way I can introduce you to the horrors of the hospital food."

Arizona laughed and they headed to the elevator.

It was less quiet at the cafeteria. Interns were arguing about who saw the best surgery, nurses were discussing the latest gossips, attendings were betting at which of the first year interns would faint after the first trip to the OR. As Teddy and Arizona was looking around, they saw somebody waving at them.

Teddy felt that the other blonde stiffened a little.

"Come on. Let me introduce you. You'll like them."

Arizona took a deep breath, squared her shoulder and put on a smile that wasn't mirrored in her eyes.

There were two people seated at the table. They stopped talking when they saw two newcomers. Teddy spoke first.

"Hey. I want you to meet our newest addition – Robbins, Head of Peads" she turned to the handsome man with a graying hair and sparkling blue eyes "This is Sloan –Head of Plastics" he smiled widely at Peads surgeon "And this is Montgomery – Head of Neo-natal surgery." The tall read-head shook Arizona's hand and gestured for them to take a seat. Addison glanced at Peads surgeon.

"So, how do you like Seattle Grace so far?" After seeing sincere smiles of other surgeons Arizona started to relax.

"Well… I think it's awesome. And I always wanted to work at the teaching hospital."

Mark looked at her with horror.

"Be careful what you wish for. You haven't met our interns… brr..."

"Yeah… Mark is right… Communication with them requires steel nerves or a hidden stock of alcohol in your locker." Addison added.

They all laughed and tension finally left Arizona. Four surgeons talked for a little while until Addison's pager beeped and she dragged Teddy and Arizona with herself. As they were leaving the cafeteria they met another attending. A beautiful Latina smiled at them and headed in the direction of their table.

"Hey, Mark. Who was that?"

"Oh, she's our new Head of Peads. Arizona Robbins."

"Hmm… Interesting…"

"What's interesting?"

Callie looked like she was calculating something in her head.

"Oh, nothing… Just thinking…"

Mark shrugged his shoulders and changed the topic of the conversation.

The girls was having a good time relating the latest gossips to Arizona and sharing some funny things from their earlier days at Seattle. Finally Teddy left them, saying that she needs to be in an OR. Arizona promised to come and watch her from the gallery later. This situation left her with Addison, who decided to explain to the young attending the 'basic-rules-of-surviving', as she put it.

"So, as I was saying, fear the first-year residents. They're like a hungry pack of wolfs. They would eat each other if it'll mean more OR time. They only want to cut, cut…" Redhead stopped when she saw the horror in 's eyes "… well, you get the picture…" then she smiled mischievously "Oh, and some of them are very good-looking. Well, for example, third-year resident, Alex Karev… he's cute! great ass"

Arizona giggled. "Um… sorry, but he's soo not my type…"

"What? You didn't even see him!"

"Well… I'll give you a hint – he's a guy." She smirked. Addison looked confused.

"Oh… you mean?" Arizona nodded. "Ohh… In that case I know a couple of cute nurses from your wing."

They laughed out loud at that. Then Addison turned serious.

"Well, I need to tell you one more rule. The most important in our hospital. Don't piss off Miranda Bailey." Now it was Arizona's turn to look confused. "I mean, they don't call her Nazi for nothing. So if you meet her, just nod, do as she says and don't smile."

"Oh, come on. She can't be that bad!"

"She's not bad. She's just… Bailey. Oh, you'll see for yourself."

Peads surgeon glanced at her watch. "Crap. I need to go." she smiled at Addie "See ya later"

It was another 15 minutes before Arizona found the gallery to the Teddy's OR. It was empty except for the short afro-american woman, wearing dark-blue scrubs, who was reading the charts. The blondedecided to start a conversation, after such a good start at the hospital. She sat in the chair next to the woman and smiled widely.

"Hey. I'm . New Peads attending. You know, this is really awesome hospital. I was a little nervous, but people are so nice here and…"

"You're on crack or something?" The woman muttered. Arizona's jaw snapped shut.

"Umm… Excuse me?"

"Nothing… I'm ." Peads surgeon gulped. _Oops… _She looked around, trying to find and escape route.

"Umm… Nice to meet you. I heard that you wanted to apply to a peads fellowship." _I think work-related topics are safe…_

"It didn't work out." _… or not._

"Ok. I'm gonna get some coffee. Umm… it was… nice… talking to you." And Arizona fled from the gallery. Bailey watched her go and smiled.

"Nice girl…"

Meanwhile Mark and Callie was standing near the nurse's station, discussing what to do tonight.

"… or to Joe's. Addison wanted to play darts."

"I don't know, Mark. I'm just sooo bored. I haven't even operated today." She whined. Mark opened his mouth to say something, when he saw an approaching Addison. "So, how was your tour with ?"

"Fine. She seems like a good person. I think we should invite her with us some time."

"Oh, you're trying your 'matchmaking' thing again?" Mark asked suspiciously. Addison slapped him on the shoulder.

"I'm not doing a matchmaking. Besides, it'll be a little harder than usually."

"What do you mean?" Sloan looked confused.

"Well, she's more Callie's type."

Addie smirked. Mark stopped talking and his thoughts were drifting among some dirty things. And Torres, who was listening intensely, smiled almost predatory smile. _So, maybe this day won't be so boring anymore. _

A/N: So what do you think?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

It was an unusual warm and sunny morning for Seattle. Rays of a sunrise were playing with windows of the Seattle Grace Hospital. A person with a cup of coffee in one hand and with a stack of papers in the other was walking unhurriedly in the direction of a main entrance. It was the third day for Arizona Robbins at her new job. Three days since she opened a new chapter in her life. And with each day she was breathing just a little bit easier, smiling a little more warmly, and walking a little taller. And now was making her way to the hospital to start an early shift. Secretly, she was hoping for a slow day, full of laughter with her patients, gossiping with Teddy and bantering with Addison, and most of all, she didn't want to lose any young lives today. So she smiled to the rising sun and stepped into the hall of a hospital…

In the meantime, one very curious Ortho surgeon was snooping around hospital in attempt to find more information about the young head of Peads. It turned out to be a very difficult task. So, with a frustrated sigh went to the doctor's lounge to make herself a cup of horrible coffee and read one of the stupid magazines. When Callie opened the door, she saw Teddy Altman, who was quietly writing her patients' charts. _Hmm… Just what I was looking for… _She smiled mischievously and cleared her throat. Teddy jumped.

"Oh, hey! Didn't see you." The Cardio surgeon smiled. "You're in search of some peace and quiet?"

Callie made herself a cup of coffee and flopped in an opposite chair.

"Sort of… Just wandering around…" She pretended to think for a minute. "Hey, I heard we have a new Head of Peads… I think I saw her with you in the cafeteria…" Torres looked at Teddy expectantly.

"Yeah… Arizona Robbins. But didn't you meet her at the meeting with the Chief?"

"Ah, I missed it… Was pulled in a surgery." Callie tried not to look interested. "She's kind of young to be Head of department…"

"Well, she's one of the best… Besides she was a Head of Peads back in Boston for past two years."

"Oh, so you know her?" _Come on, Teddy, spill it…_

"Together since second grade." She smiled fondly. "The best person I've ever met."

"Hmm… I guess you two are close." Teddy nodded. "So, what kind of person is she?"

"Why do you ask?" Blonde doctor glanced at Callie suspiciously.

"Just curious…"

"You're never curious without the reason. So, why are you interested in my friend?" Teddy looked very serious and Callie understood that she won't get any information from this source.

"Don't be so serious. I'm just asking…"

"Torres…" She didn't get to finish, because Callie's pager went off and Torres with a mumbled 'sorry' fled out of the room.

Turned out that this day wasn't very quiet for . After a couple of hours of her shift she was paged to an OR for an emergency surgery. She was scrubbing in while her intern, Alex Karev was updating her on a patient.

"Angela Miles. 7 years. Was in a car crash. She has an internal bleeding and a broken femur and a blood flow in her leg needs a repair. I already paged an Ortho. We don't know the extent of the damage to her internal organs. She coded in ER once."

Arizona took a deep breath. She knew that these cases could be very unpredictable. But today she wasn't going to lose. So she squared her shoulders and glanced at Alex.

"Let's go."

Arizona was in the middle of trying to save little girl's spleen, when the door to the OR opened and a very confident looking female doctor stepped in.

"Hello. I'm . Ortho." She walked to the table. "What's the situation?"

"Broken femur and damaged blood flow. She's bleeding a lot. So you need to hurry." Arizona turned her cool gaze to Callie. "And I'm ."

Torres smirked under the mask. _Oh, believe me, I know…_

It took her 30 minutes to almost repair blood vessels, but the girl was still losing blood. So, Callie put all her focus to finish as quickly as possible. Just a minute and she would save this girl's leg. Suddenly all machines started beeping. _What the hell?_

"What the hell?" Arizona cursed.

"She's coding!"

"Karev! Crash cart!" Peads surgeon glanced at Callie. ", you need to step away."

Callie didn't look back.

"!"

"Just a moment! I need only a moment!" She was frantically trying to finish.

Arizona was furious.

". I said TAKE A STEP BACK!"

"I'm done! I'm done…" Alex didn't waste a second.

"Charge 300… Clear!" Everyone was holding their breath. The girl's heart started beating again. Arizona looked at Callie. Her eyes were cold and stormy.

"Next time, I will _personally_ kick you out of _my_ OR."

The rest of the surgery went in a complete silence.

At the evening Teddy decided to keep her promise and take Arizona to the bar. They found a comfortable booth and were trying to decide what to drink.

"I'm on call tonight, so no drinking for me. But you can relax all you want."

"Oh, don't worry, I will. Especially since you're paying." Arizona smiled and ordered a full bottle of wine.

Teddy didn't waste any time before starting her questioning.

"How was your day?"

"Pretty good. Without much stress. Well, except for one very intense surgery." She gulped full glass of wine.

"What about it?"

"I'm just very calm person, you know. And it's hard to make me mad. But, boy, I was mad today!"

Now Teddy looked interested.

"Don't tell me one of the interns made you lose your temper!"

"That's the problem! Not an intern. And attending! One very arrogant attending…" She gulped another glass. "Argh… I can't remember the last time…"

Teddy's pager beeped.

"Crap. It's my transplant patient." She looked apologetically at blonde. "But you'll tell me later all about it!" Arizona just smiled and saluted Teddy with her third glass.

Now Arizona was sitting alone, finishing her wine. And she didn't hear as someone walked to the table. She looked up when someone cleared their throat and found herself looking at the object of her irritation.

"Hi. I just saw you and wanted to apologize for my behavior in the OR." Arizona relaxed a little.

"Well. Apology accepted. But I wasn't joking about the next time." She motioned to the seat next to her. Callie smiled.

"I'll keep that in mind…" Callie smiled wolfishly. "So, what is such a beautiful woman doing here alone?" Thanks to the amount of the wine Arizona consumed, she didn't think anything wrong about this question.

"Well, I was here with my friend, but she rushed back to the hospital."

Callie slid closer. Arizona stiffened.

"How about I buy you another drink?" Now blonde was looking like a deer caught in headlights.

"Umm… Thanks, but no. I think I need to go home." Torres bent forward a little. Arizona blushed furiously.

"Why such a hurry?" There was a definite suggestion.

"I… need… umm… early shift."

"Oh, yeah, it's a very important reason…" Callie smirked.

"Um… sorry…" Arizona grabbed her purse and sprinted to the door.

"Well, that went perfectly." Callie drawled sarcastically. She thought about the young Peads surgeon and her smile turned predatory. She was the first who had said 'no' to Latina. And she saw a definite challenge in this situation. _Three weeks, Arizona Robbins. Three weeks and you'll be begging me to kiss you…_

_-tbc-  
_

_Reviews are greatly appreciated ;)  
_


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: Thanks for all of you for wonderful reviews :)**_

**Chapter 3**

Callie closed the door to her apartment and determined marched across the hall. Just as she was going to start pounding at the door, it opened, revealing a very disheveled Mark. He tiptoed in the hall and quietly closed the door, and motioned to her that he's ready to go. She didn't move and just stared at her best friend like he was insane.

"What?" Mark looked at his watch. "We need to get going, our shifts start soon."

"We live across the street from the hospital, so don't panic." The plastic surgeon just rolled his eyes. "And why are you acting so strange? Sneaking out of the apartment, looking like you just committed a crime…"

Mark shifted nervously. "Well, I didn't want to wake Lexie. She had a rough shift and, you know…"

"Uh huh… So why are you looking so guilty?" Now Mark looked very nervous and a little scared.

"I just wanted to make her a breakfast… And there was a little accident."

"I think I'm gonna love it." Callie smirked. "What accident?"

"I burnt her favorite frying pan…" Torres burst out laughing. Mark threw her a dirty look.

"You need to be in crowded places today. That way Lexie won't have a chance to kill you – too many witnesses." She smiled widely. "Or you can always run to Canada."

"Very funny…" He drawled sarcastically. "Another word and I'll remove your name from my will. And you won't get my waffle maker."

Callie gasped dramatically. "I won't say a word! Just leave my future waffle maker alone." She paused and looked at him thoughtfully. "But research on which countries would give you asylum won't hurt."

Mark groaned. "You're incorrigible… Tell me again, why we are friends?"

"I'm irresistible." She flashed him a cocky smile.

"Oh, by the way, what happened with you and Blondie yesterday at Joe's? She fled from the bar."

"Nothing extraordinary. I was hitting on her, she got scared and the rest of it you saw."

"Whoa, Torres. Since when do you hit on your co-workers?"

"There's first time for everything…" Callie smirked and Mark looked worried.

"I hope you understand that this could end with not so good consequences." Callie just rolled her eyes. "And who said that she's interested in you?"

"Oh, believe me, she'll like me. I have a plan." She turned around and headed to the elevator. _A very good plan…_

Teddy was making her way to her office, carrying a cup of fresh coffee and whistling some popular tune. She opened the door and headed to her desk with intention to finish a department monthly report. Just as she was about to put down her coffee

"What's with the whistling?"

"Aaahh!" Teddy jumped with a scream and started to look around. She spotted Arizona, who was sitting comfortably on the couch.

"Holly crap, Robbins! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" She was clutching at her heart and shooting daggers at peads surgeon.

"Hey! It's not my fault you're so jumpy today…"

"You sneaked on me!"

"… and paranoid."

Cardio surgeon mumbled something illegible and flopped down on her chair.

"So what brought you to my humble abode?" She drawled sarcastically.

Suddenly Arizona lost all her playfulness and looked down at her hands.

"I met after you left."

"Oh…"

"And she kind of was hitting on me…"

"And?"

"… and I got all insecure and almost ran out of there." The peads doctor looked like she was about to cry, so Teddy rushed to her side.

"Hey, don't think like that. Knowing Torres, you've got nothing to worry about."

"How so?"

"Well, she's not the dating material." At Arizona's confused face Teddy tried to explain. "She's a very known player."

Now younger blonde was sitting with her mouth hanging open.

"And even if you ran out of the bar, I think she didn't have trouble finding someone for the night."

"Somehow this doesn't make me feel better…"

Teddy decided that a change of topic was in order.

"If it'll make you feel better, I can tell you why I was whistling earlier…"

Arizona smiled and settled more comfortably on the couch.

"I'm all ears…"

"Well, there's new psychologist guy at our hospital…"

* * * * *  
Arizona was standing near the one of the hospital beds in the ER, listening to Alex Karev, who was reading from a patient's chart. Her patient was a 10-year old boy with a fractured arm.

"… so I ordered the X-rays and paged an ortho."

"And who's on-call today?"

"Dr. Torres." _Crap._"Oh, and here she is."_Double crap._

Callie smiled inwardly when she saw blonde surgeon. _My day gets better and better._

"Hello, ." Arizona smiled tightly in response and shifted nervously. It was a very awkward situation for her. Callie showed the scans. "Good news – no need in surgery. Just a cast" she looked at the boy. "What's your favorite color?"

"Blue."

"Blue it is. Now will get you a cast and your parents will take you out for some ice cream" Callie winked at him. And turned to Arizona. ", can I have a word with you?"

They stepped away from the patient. The blonde surgeon was looking everywhere but at Callie.

"I want to apologize. Again." It got Arizona's attention."Yesterday at the bar I was out of line. I hope you're not angry with me." Callie flashed a megawatt smile and Peads surgeon blinked in surprise.

"Not really… You just caught me by surprise." _Hm… She could be quite charming._

"Then, I want to apologize for catching you by surprise." _Come on, Robbins, relax a little._

"Then apology accepted." Now Arizona was smiling slightly.

"And in order to make it up to you, let me buy you a lunch, Dr. Robbins."

"You could do that." Her dimples made a full appearance. "And it's Arziona."

"As you wish, milady." Callie bowed her head a little and Peads surgeon laughed with ease for the first time today. _I think this will be interesting…_


End file.
